UNIT: Poetry of Witness
Year: 9th-12th Grade Creative Writing
Jennifer D. Klein, St. Mary’s Academy
Englewood, Colorado
Visit the Poetry of Witness Virtual Classroom at Taking IT Global
The goal of this unit is to engage students of Creative Writing in poetry as a means of exploring Palestinian life. Students will watch various RJI films to give them a sense of daily life in Palestine, and will read a variety of Palestinian poetry, both by famous poets and young unknowns. Students will then write reactionary poems and their own poems of witness to their own generation. |
Unit Title: Poetry of Witness (in partnership with the Research Journalism Initiative [RJI])
Teacher and School: Jennifer Klein, St. Mary’s Academy
Course and Grade Level: Creative Writing, grades 9-12
Approximate Length: 1 week
RJI Resources: Falastine’s poetry and photographic portfolios by M. Faraj (An Najah University, Palestine); one short film on life in the West Bank (RJI)
Big Ideas: Poetry and photography as a means to bear witness, poetry and photography as the expression of personal experience, poetry as dialogue, literature’s capacity to simultaneously participate in and transcend politics.
Enduring Understandings:
- Real politics is about people and their actual individual lives, daily experiences, etc.
- Poetry and photography can serve as a way to bear witness to personal experiences
- Literature allows readers access to personal experiences in global regions of conflict which are typically difficult to discuss
- Photographyand film allow viewers access to personal experiences in regions of conflict via visual nuances
- Because literature transcends politics and shares personal experience, it can help readers develop an authentic, compassionate understanding of different global experiences, thus participating in the formation of cross-cultural global empathy
|
Essential Questions:
- What are the nuances to life in Palestine expressed by Falastine’s poems and Faraj’s photographs?
- Can we enter someone else’s life authentically through literature and photography?
- How might the arts provide a means of communication between cultures? Does artistic expression allow the discussion of difficult regions and political climates better than other means of communication?
- How does cross-cultural artistic exchange change the way we think or feel about the world and other people’s experiences?
|
Activities: Students will...
- View photographic portfolios of Mohammad Faraj
- View one short RJI film on life in the West Bank
- Read the poems of Falastine
- Choose one of Faraj’s photos and write a response poem
- Choose one of Falastine’s poems and write a response poem
- Write a poem which bears witness to an experience in your own life/world.
|
Skills: Students will gain competency in...
- Photographic analysis (visual literacy, including analysis of expression, gesture, background/setting, clothing and props)
- Poetic analysis (poetic literacy, including analysis of visual imagery, symbolism and metaphor, language choices, rythmic techniques and other poetic devices)
- Authentic cultural and political exploration via artistic work
- Poetry writing
|
Authentic Assessment: Students will develop and demonstrate proficiency in...
- Verbal poetic analysis
- Verbal photographic analysis
- Writing poetry in response to Palestinian poetry and photography
- Writing poetry to bear witness to experiences of their own generation
Final Assessment: Students will produce a final “show” (either in published, online or gallery form) of student poems with the Palestinian pieces which inspired them |
|
|
The Research Journalism Initiative
